Boxing Day Shooting

[jayomatic]

Thoughts? Frustrations? Ideas?

I'm just finding it a bit scary that there are people out there in this city with no regard for human life.

Sometimes i wish it were legal to chase these kind of people down and beat them until they're barely living.

 

[wyliepoon]

It's made the Yahoo! News headlines already... might make a dent in our American tourist business.

Link to article

1 Dead, 6 Hurt in Toronto Street Shooting

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 25 minutes ago

TORONTO - Gunfire erupted on a busy Toronto street filled with holiday shoppers Monday evening, killing a young woman and wounding six other people, police said.

They said two suspects were arrested and at least one gun was seized shortly after the 5:30 p.m. Monday violence near the popular Eaton Center shopping mall, a downtown zone popular with tourists.

Witnesses said they dove for cover or took refuge in shops when they heard gunshots.

"Someone said they were shot and everyone went to the back of the store," said Magnolia Sandoval, an employee at a camera store.

Police said they were investigating if violence was gang related. They did not immediately disclose if the two people arrested were suspected of opening fire or how many attackers were involved. It also wasn't clear if the victims had been purposely fired on.

"I can't say which of the individuals have been targeted and which are accidental," Police Staff Sgt. Stan Belza said. "This is an extremely busy shopping day. There were a lot of people out there."

Belza described the slain victim as a young woman, without giving her age. The six wounded were hospitalized, including an off-duty police officer who was hit in the leg.

Emergency vehicles crowded shopping area, which was cordoned off with yellow police tape.

The Toronto zone was also the site of two other recent shootings. There have been 78 murders in Toronto this year, including a record 52 by gunfire — twice as many as last year.

"I've seen this city change and I'm not pleased with it," Belza said. "It seems to be so brazen, so little regard for anyone else's safety."

The rash of recent guns deaths in Toronto prompted Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to announce earlier this month that his government would ban handguns if he were re-elected in the Jan. 23 elections.

 

[miketoronto]

Thats not good. Whats going on with Yonge and Dundas.

And 78 murders. Toronto did not have a good year.

 

[allabootmatt]

Neither BBC nor CNN have picked this up yet...hopefuly it can remain under the radar internationally. While this and other incidents are obviously horrible, I think they give people a totally wrong idea. Toronto is STILL the safest major city on the continent, if not the planet. What we do have is saturation-level media coverage that ensures wall-to-wall stories on this stuff, as well as endless soul-searching and analysis. The truth is that you're still more likely to get killed in Vancouver, Calgary, or Montreal than in hogtown, and hopefully both citizens and the press won't lose sight of that.

 

[miketoronto]

Not good for the downtown Yonge shopping area. The national news is just showcasing the story, about terror in Toronto's core.

As the news says, "it was a war zone"


This is going to have very negative effects on downtown Yonge. Even my mom who loves going down there just said she is not sure if it is worth the risk anymore to go to Yonge Street, with all the shootings.

 

[jeicow]

it was front page on yahoo for about an hour.

 

[tkip]

Dispite what the media is shouting, downtown Toronto is actually quite safe. Here's what happened. A few goons were downtown, probably from the burb projects. They decided they were going to kill someone.

They don't care. Someone had to die. As simple as that. Its beyond disgusting and if this doesn't provoke our political leaders to do something, I don't know what will.

Its sick and sooner or later, children are going to be killed. Not scared. Just disgusted that we're producing more and more animals like this and people are sitting on their hands.

How about we lock them up. Forever. Throw away the key. Crime committed with a gun gets you an automatic 20 yrs.

 

[jeicow]

How about we lock them up. Forever. Throw away the key. Crime committed with a gun gets you an automatic 20 yrs.

Vote NDP and that never is gonna happen. Look at Homolka during the last NDP government. She's walking free as can be.

 

[miketoronto]

My dad thinks what the shooters did to the victims should be done to them. So if they shot someone in the leg on Yonge. Then the shooters should have the same thing done to them.

Not sure if that would fix the crime problem though.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

Yep, the gun registry in action. And we all know a proposed Liberal handgun ban will make crimes like this history. Well, don't we? Of course we will! Canadian values, etc.

20 year mandatory sentences will never happen in this country. Never. Only when the sons and daughters of politicans, lawyers and academics have their faces shattered by bullets, like that 19 year old girl, will we see people actually go to jail for their posted sentence, and not the Boxing Day sentencing sale known as credit for time-served. Don't you see? The poor black guys in the BMW that were caught clearly somehow managed to elude the notorious racist profiling practices of the Toronto Police. And of course they'll be "known" to police. And of course one or more of these vermin will be on probation for another offence. Or on bail. Or on "open custody" or some other monstrosity cooked-up by a justice system too afraid to offend the sensibilities of these poor, misguided would-be basketball stars and proud fathers who clearly are victims of racist courts and school systems. Yes, indeedy.

But seriously...it's not like Liberal justice ministers have denied the effectiveness of mandatory sentences in deterring crime. Oops, er....wait a sec...haven't been tried, you say? Stripping judges' discretion? Yes, the bruised ego of a judge, versus the safety of shoppers on a public street. Well, we know the answer to that dilemma, don't we? Can't have the judges angry at us, can we?

If the cops know who these gang-bangers are, then honestly, let's see some targeted assassinations. Harsh? Okay, which headline would make me lose sleep:

Gunmen kill innocent bystander on busy Yonge Street

or:

Police operations eliminate known, habitual criminals from existence


Oh fiendish, don't be such a fascist. Yes, I know. Criminals with extensive records of violent crimes should be allowed to walk the streets and fire off guns at crowds and be rotated through the courts, and not live in fear of being picked up in unmarked vans, shot, and their bodies secretly cremated. I know, I know, we can't have that...nothing some b-ball courts and higher fees for skeet shooters won't fix.

Warrant sweeps through TCHC projects? Preventative arrests of known criminals? Draconian sentences? No, can't be done. The criminiologists say so, the academics say so. I trust they will attend this girl's funeral to enlighten us and steer us from our wayward thoughts.

 

[Brighter Hell]

^so you're saying that the fact that those measures might just increase the number of people getting killed doesn't matter? invoking martial law in projects and arresting people for crimes they haven't committed might sound all tough but it does nothing to reduce crime. poking a snake with a stick won't stop it from biting you.

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

Sometimes I think that some people's reactions to this kind of event have less to do with sympathy for those involved and more to do with finding an opportunity to reenvision the world more as they'd like to see it.

Of course, when I heard about this, I imagined getting my bare hands on whoever did this too. I suppose a great many people did. But you have to move on from there.

The whole thing just makes me want to throw up.

 

[ganjavih]

Yes, some of these thugs have no regard for human life... life is cheap to them... completely expendible. If that's their perspective, then let's take their lives away as well, do what fiendish suggests: lock them up and throw away the key. I'm sure a lot of these gangstas are repeat offenders. Wrt guns, it's one strike and you're out I say, give them a little taste of Singapore-style justice.

The story did make CNN and BBC by the way.

 

[thx1038]

The shooting happend exactly 2hrs after I left Sam Recordman. I could have been caught up in this mess, I could be dead... who knows?

I hope they anally rape those who created this mayhem on our streets. What a shame, what were they thinking, when they open fire with all those people on the street? Could they have picked a better time when there was less innocent by standers?

Seriously, with the amont of risk these boneheads created for 100's of innocent people, they should get the death penalty! I mean, come on One person is dead and six more are injured for what? Because some moron bumped into another moron?

We should have a public hanging for these worthless shit holes and we should all throw rocks them before we hang them.


1038

 

[tudararms]

I was going to go shopping downtown today (I live in Burlington). I think I'll stay home. If the city doesn't care enough to do what is necessary to protect me why should I care what happens to it?